Early Dallas fire department paramedics rolled up in this 1970s-era ambulance.

Explosive technological advances have brought improvements in EKG machines (this one from 1977), cardiac defibrillators, communication equipment and even the ambulances themselves.

Ten months after NBC premiered Emergency!, the popular medical drama about two Los Angeles firefighters-turned-paramedics, the city of Dallas debuted its own real-life version of the show.

In November 1972, the Dallas Fire Department made its first ambulance rescue call, rolling from Station 6 in South Dallas to assist an assault victim. That run was the first of 12,000 in that fiscal year. This past year, the number had skyrocketed to 182,000 total rescue calls.

And the changes to the rescue side of the department, officially known as Dallas Fire-Rescue since 2000, have been just as explosive.

“The capabilities in the back of an ambulance today are just unbelievable compared to what we could do back then,” said Assistant Chief Norman W. Seals, head of the department’s EMS bureau. “It is a field that is constantly growing and changing. There is a huge amount of research into emergency care. It is changing our industry a great deal — in a good way.”

“Back then, we didn’t even wear gloves,” said Capt. Gregory J. Courson, who became a paramedic 33 years ago and is the department’s second-longest actively serving paramedic. “In fact, not wearing gloves was a sign of how tough you were.”

Seals, a Dallas fire paramedic from 1988 to 2000, laughingly agreed.

“It was nasty,” he said. “And the nastier it was, the tougher you were. And tough guys didn’t wear gloves. But like everything else, we evolved. We changed. Now you put on gloves before you even get off the truck. It’s like second nature.”

Dr. James Atkins, a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has witnessed even more changes than Seals. Atkins took over the training of Dallas paramedics in 1973 and ran every paramedic training program until he stepped down last September.

When the paramedic program began in 1972, he said the crews just provided basic first aid, with bandages, splints and the like. But before then, things were even more dire.

“Funeral home ambulances would pick you up and take you to a hospital,” said Atkins. “They generally had no equipment. They just grabbed you, put you in the back and drove off. The average response time was 35 to 40 minutes.”

And because of that lengthy response time, Atkins said, “there were no survivors prior to ’72 from a cardiac arrest … they’d just take you to the funeral home.”

Seals said that even as recently as six years ago, the chance of a paramedic reviving a person in cardiac arrest was about 8 percent. Now, he said, that figure is up to about 40 percent.

“We literally bring them back from the dead,” he said.

Much of that improvement, Seals and Courson said, is because the entire emergency process is seen as one cohesive movement, from the time the 911 call is made until the patient is delivered to the hospital. Seals said that constant research over the years has shown that even bystanders play a vital role in helping save lives. Courson said those life-saving measures begin even before paramedics leave the fire station.

“The dispatchers are better trained now,” said Courson, who credited the old Emergency! TV show for leading him to become a paramedic because “I wanted to be one of those guys.”

“We have GPS now and we get a lot more information before we even get on the scene,” he said. “We used to have to go back and forth — who’s the closest? Who can get there the quickest? — but we don’t have to do that now.”

That’s important because Seals said that over the past 20 years, the number of fire calls has declined, but the number of EMS calls has risen 2 percent to 3 percent each year, nationwide and locally.

Seals said the work of paramedics has been aided by a growing realization among health professionals that medical first responders provide a vital link in the health care chain. He described it as a “cultural change” that is still “constantly evolving.”

“The medical community began to realize how important pre-hospital care is in emergency treatment,” Seals said. “Our people are literally bringing people back to life before they get to the hospital.”

Atkins agreed that the work of paramedics is integral to vastly improved emergency care and he credits the experience that longtime paramedics bring to the table. At least one paramedic is on every Dallas Fire-Rescue engine that rolls, sometimes more. Atkins said that depth of experience and knowledge goes a long way in knowing what to do in field emergency situations.

“There’s a marriage between the pre-hospital work and the hospital to maximize resources,” Atkins said. Paramedics and emergency workers at hospitals are in constant communication. “It saves time and that saves lives.”

Atkins likens the changes he has seen in Dallas’ paramedic program to the evolution of television.

“When the basic EMT’s came along, it was like black and white television. And then when we went to paramedic training, it was like having color television,” he said. “And now with all the advancements we have, it’s like high def. That’s how much it’s changed.”

But Seals and Courson say one thing has never changed since that first ambulance run in 1972.

“We all hired on this job because we want to help save lives,” Seals said. “I remember there were times when I was on the ambulance … you were so frustrated because people died; you just felt like you could do more if you had more leeway. Well, now we have that. We’re helping save lives.”

By the numbers: Dallas EMS

STATION 6: The fire station that responded to the first Dallas Fire Department rescue call in November 1972